Disclaimer: I do not own Friday Night Lights or any correlating elements.
A/N: I've always loved Tami and Glen's friendship, and I think they probably had a lot of good times at school together. Here's a drabble of some of those actual and possible adventures. Reviews are appreciated!
Yucking It Up
"And like, it was like I was talking to a zombie, you know?" Glen slumped his shoulders and stared at Tami cross-eyed, which made her giggle. He looked ridiculous. "He just stared at me like I was some invisible force field and then walked away when I was done! I really don't know how to handle these kids, Tami, and all I can say is that I'm so glad you're back."
Tami had been back to work for a few days now, but the principal still had Glen help her out with some of the kids. Apparently there had been a massive outcry during her absence and numerous things needed to be sorted out (class schedules, college application materials, disciplinary measures, emotional counseling, etc.), and Tami found that it was too much for even her to sort through.
"You're so funny, Glen," she laughed, glancing through the file he had given her. This kid, a sophomore named James Davis, certainly had the track record of being a mindless zombie. 1.7 GPA, unfinished summer school makeups, ten suspensions since being in high school... He was a doozer, and clearly, he needed some help. He needed an intervention. "Well, I suppose I'll be able to figure this one out." Glen let out a sigh of relief, and Tami laughed again. "I'll set up a meeting with him later this week. Who else are you having problems with?"
That Friday she finally had that meeting with James (the poor thing! He had lost his mother to brain cancer over the summer but no one had even bothered to tell the school. How could that happen? How could they not be aware of that?!). After she let him out of her office and encouraged him to come back any time to see her, Glen popped up from around the corner.
"How did it go?" He looked nervous, as though he felt personally responsible for whatever James was going through. He's so sweet like that, Tami thought. She remembered how bad he had felt when she had showed up to the couseling office back at the beginning of the school year. He had expressed concern for her and she had completely lost it, yelling about how he thought she was a bad mother while she was only trying to help him out. Even though it was ultimately her fault, he still had felt bad, calling her to apologize and then meeting her and Gracie Belle for coffee the next day. They'd become good friends since then and Glen had helped her out more than once (thanks to him, the ice machine was working again, as was the air conditioning unit, and of course he had picked her and Gracie up at the hospital that one time), so Tami was truly grateful for him.
"It's a long story," she said, checking her watch. It was ten minutes to lunch. "How about we grab our lunches and I'll tell you about it in the lounge?"
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Hey, Tami!" Glancing over her shoulder, Tami looked to see Glen practically running over to her. He was trying to keep his composure as he fell into step beside her, but he was panting slightly and there were a few beads of sweat on his forehead. Oh, Glen. "Hey, I was just wondering if you had gotten lunch already? Or if you packed anything?"
"No," Tami answered, "I didn't and I don't have anything." She realized for the first time today that her stomach was grumbling and that she felt a little dizzy. She really needed to take better care of herself, amidst all the pressure of taking care of everyone else. "Are you running over to the Alamo Freeze? Please, please, please pick me up a burger and some fries. Oh, and maybe one of those chocolate-covered sundaes, if it doesn't melt on your way back here..."
It didn't melt (completely), so Tami assaulted it as soon as Glen made it back to her office, careful not to spill the liquid sundae on her dress.
"Mmm," she said a couple minutes later, now shoving the burger in her mouth. "Thank you so much for this.
"Yeah, it's no problem."
Tami giggled. She was eating like a pig, but she didn't care. It tasted so good. "Breastfeeding makes me hungry all the time."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, it's like I eat something, feed it to Gracie, and then have to eat something else because it's gone! It's like I can never get enough, you know?"
"Oh, gross," said Glen suddenly, popping a fry into his mouth and grimacing. "I think Gracie threw up on your back."
"No!" She strained her neck and tried to look back at it. "Really?"
"Oh, yeah – she threw up on it alright."
"I can't see it," she pouted, still trying to look backwards at it. "Can you get it off?" She couldn't walk around school like that! People would think she was some kind of sloppy, child-rearing barbarian who couldn't even keep her clothes clean.
"Tami, no, I don't know – "
"No," she insisted, handing him a napkin and scooting her chair over.
"I'm eating my lunch –"
"Come on," she pressed, moving her hair aside so he could get to the vomit spot. "I can't believe I'm – is it really bad?"
"I think it might be easier to have Gracie throw up on the other side," Glen teased. He gently pressed the napkin against her back.
"Ahaha!"
"God, I think I see the Virgin Mary in that vomit..."
"Oh gosh." Tami giggled, and she realized at that moment how ridiculous the entire situation was. She and Glen were secretly pigging out in her office, and she was panicking about her daughter spitting up on her back when she had burped her this morning. It was a very comedic sort of situation, and she couldn't help but appreciate that Glen was the one experiencing it with her. He had a great sense of humor and was being very understanding about all of this. He was a good friend.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Hey y'all!" After Mrs. Ellington (the social studies teacher) let her into the foyer, Tami smiled around at all of the other teachers gathered for Bunco Night. She didn't know a lot of them very well (after all, she'd only been working there for a year), but she spotted Glen right away. He was sitting in the corner in his tweed overcoat. What a geek, she thought affectionately.
"Hey, Tami!" He came over to her and gave her a hug, which was a first but which wasn't necessarily uncalled for. They'd been through a lot the past couple months, and they were friends. It was cool.
The Bunco game got going and things got intense. People started throwing in money (over Bunco? Bunco? It wasn't like it was poker, for heaven's sake) and, to literally everybody's surprise, Glen won the final round.
"Yes!" he shouted, throwing his hands up and jumping out of his seat. "Woo hoo! Show me the money, y'all!"
"Congratulations, hon!" Tami gave him a high five and laughed with the other teachers as Glen did a weird kind of victory dance. He was a horribly awkward person whose dance moves clearly were stuck in those equally as awkward junior high days, but it was still funny. She was having a lot of fun, and it felt so nice to be out with real people and not just her family. It was like a breath of fresh air.
"Hey, let's go out for a beer!" said Glen when they were walking back out to their cars. "On me! I mean, I did just win the lottery with that Bunco game."
"Well, that's very sweet of you, but I gotta get back home and –"
"Come on, Tami!" Glen insisted, waving his arms toward his car. "Just one. And I'll drop you back off to your car when we're done."
I guess it couldn't hurt, Tami thought, finally letting him wear her down and then climbing into the passenger seat of his 1999 Chrysler Concorde. The Bunco game had ended earlier than she anticipated, and it wouldn't take long to have one beer with a friend. Eric certainly had beers with his friends, so why couldn't Tami?
"What kind of beer do you like?"
"Uh..." Honestly, Tami didn't really drink beer. She drank wine. Red, white, pink, yellow, orange, indigo – it didn't matter. She loved her wine. But she didn't want to be rude and she was curious as to what beer would do to her, so she ordered what Eric always ordered.
"This is fun," she said after they ordered, more for herself than for anything. Glen smiled, and she smiled back. "Yeah, this is fun."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Right as Tami was about to open her office door, she looked up and saw a Post-It note stuck to the window.
"Chinese or BBQ? Reply by telegram no later than 2nd period." It didn't have a signature at the bottom, but Tami knew exactly who it was.
"By telegram," she muttered, laughing. Glen had a crazy sense of humor, and it was funny how he went around putting Post-Its on her door. Should she put a Post-It on his, too? Even though school started in ten minutes and the hallways would soon be crazy with rowdy teenage kids?
"Hey, babe." Just as Tami was about to seal her Post-It response in a manila envelope, Eric walked in, eying what she was doing. "What are you – are you putting a Post-It note in a manila envelope?"
"It's supposed to be a joke, Eric." Tami tried to shove the note in there, but Eric was faster. He took it from her hands. "Eric! C'mon now. That could be confidential!"
"Chinese, to be delivered no later than Lunch A," Eric read. He then looked up at her and scratched his head. "Tami, who the hell are you making lunch dates with? Please tell me it's not Glen."
He always got so jealous. Tami knew he was upset over the whole beer thing and she knew he'd been annoyed that they'd eaten burgers together, but this was getting out of hand! Glen was Tami's friend, and she had every right to spend twenty minutes a day with him. "It's not a date, hon. It's just lunch."
"So it is with Glen!" Eric took his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair, looking at her and then looking down at the Post-It note. He rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Babe, we've talked about this." Tami threw the Post-It note in the envelope and then sealed it. "I'm allowed to have friends, and you don't have to feel threatened by it. Now, would you please be an angel and go drop this off at Glen's classroom on your way back out the field? I appreciate it, hon."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Tami, I got your message. What's going –" Glen stopped dead in his tracks when he walked into Tami's office to see her sitting on the couch with Gracie Belle, who was cooing and spitting all over Tami's dress.
"Hey, Glen," said Tami warmly, standing up and beaming at him. She knew it was a sneaky thing to do, leaving a message on his classroom phone saying that it was an emergency and that she needed him at her office, but she hadn't exactly lied. It was an emergency because Tami had to go to a meeting and Gracie Belle needed a chaperone.
"Oh, no." Glen shook his head, peaking around outside the office before putting his hand over his eyes. "Oh no, no, no. Tami, I'm pretty sure this isn't allowed! Does Principal Evans know about this?"
"He sure doesn't," said Tami, lifting Gracie and making baby noises before gradually moving her in Glen's direction. "And it needs to stay that way. Can you watch her while I have this meeting? It'll take ten minutes at the most. I promise."
"Oh, Tami," said Glen, his face scrunching up as Tami offered Gracie to him. He took her, though. Tami knew he would. "Gosh. I mean I guess I can, but you're not going to this on a regular basis, are you? I know you're having a hard time with daycare and all, but if you just –"
"Thank you so much, Glen." She grabbed her purse and then leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek. "Bye, Gracie Belle. Mommy will be back in fifteen to twenty minutes."
"Fifteen to twenty minutes?!" Glen exclaimed as Tami closed the door behind her.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"This Pep Assembly is lame." Glen and Tami were standing side-by-side at the rally, and Tami couldn't agree more with Glen. For once this rally wasn't about football (the girl's bowling team had made it to their state championships and, since football always got rallies for that, the bowling coach insisted that they have one, too), so that really meant that Tami wasn't obligated to stay for Eric's sake.
"Wanna sneak out and go play Bunco?"
"Geez, Glen, what is it with you and Bunco?"
"We don't have to play Bunco. Maybe blackjack? War? Go fish? Anything. I don't think I can stand here any longer."
Biting her lip, Tami stared at him, torn. She knew it was proper protocol for all staff to attend the assemblies and she knew Eric would kill her for sneaking around the school with Glen, but the idea of ditching a Pep Rally appealed to her. She hadn't done anything crazy like that since she was in high school herself, and she felt herself growing excited at the prospect of breaking the rules, even if barely.
"Alright, Glen. War. Three rounds, best two out of three, and no bets. I've got two daughters to feed so I cannot afford to lose money and pay for your future bar outings."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"So, Tami," said Eric from the couch as Tami wiped down the kitchen table, "I heard a rumor today."
Oh God. Tami stopped mid-wipe, looking over at him in horror. Had he heard? Had somebody seen them? "Oh? What's that, hon?"
"I heard from the JV volleyball coach that Tyra beat the hell out of Tim at your varsity practice today. Is that true? What's up with that?"
Volleyball rumors. Tami wanted to laugh. Of course Eric would worry about things to do with sports because he was the new Athletic Director. Tami knew she was being paranoid and she knew that she should probably come clean and tell him that she and Glen spent fifteen minutes playing War in her office, but he had agreed that she could spent twenty minutes or so with him. It really wasn't that big of a deal.
And besides, she thought, going over to sit down next to him on the couch. She knew exactly what he would say: I don't want you and Glen yucking it up in the hallways, to which she would reply: too late.